Police in Heilongjiang province, northeast China, recently cracked an illegal hunting case in which three people used drones and arrows to kill two wild boars, reported the Paper.
Drone pilots locate large prey like boar, then another drone carrying an arrow flies over the prey and a special arrow is dropped on the prey. For smaller animals such as pheasants and rabbits, a trap net is attached to the drone and dropped to catch them.
China News Weekly reported that forestry departments in many areas hire drone pilots to control wildlife populations. For example, Shaanxi province used drones to kill 200 wild boars this year. Hired drone pilots have hunting licences, and the drones and arrows used are registered, with each flight track recorded by GPS.
However, drone hunting has caused the accidental killing of livestock and poultry. Xinhua News Agency reported that last month in Shanxi province, a horse was killed after being mistaken for a boar by the thermal imaging function of a drone.
China National Radio reported that police in several provinces have cracked down this year on illegal hunting cases involving drones to kill wild animals.
Drones and arrows are not prohibited hunting tools under China’s Wildlife Protection Law. However, the Beijing News quoted a lawyer’s analysis, stating that if the target is a wild animal, it may violate the criminal law for illegal hunting. And if the target is livestock, it violates the criminal law for intentional damage to property.
Even more worrying is the threat posed to human safety by drone hunting. Bao Heng, an associate professor at the Northeast Forestry University, told China News Weekly that under certain postures, the thermal imaging silhouettes of different animals can be similar.